| Author |
Message |
Aurora
Member
11-24-2006
| Monday, August 08, 2011 - 5:36 am 
Escapee, have you read any of Anne Perry's historical fiction? Here's a link to her website you can look at to see if her books are of any interest to you.
http://anneperry.net/
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Monday, August 08, 2011 - 3:38 pm
Just finished The Memory Keepers Daughter....meh
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Monday, August 08, 2011 - 3:45 pm
I've been slowly working my way through a book that's been on my shelf for about 8 years, but I never bothered to read it until now. It's called Remember Me to Harlem, and it's the letters between Langston Hughes and Carl van Vechten, a largely forgotten (but central) figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Van Vechten was a white benefactor/author whose friendship with the Knopfs helped get Hughes his first book contract, and he was peetty openly gay--and married--and many people have believed he and Hughes had an affair.
Despite all that, I thought the book would be boring (confession: I have never liked Hughes' poetry), but it's turned out to be a lot of fun.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, August 08, 2011 - 5:43 pm
That sounds like a book right up my alley, Tish. I've always loved Hughes and I teach his poetry almost every year. I'll have to check it out; the kids enjoy reading different genres (like letters) and the whiff of scandal always piques their interest! 
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Yesitsme
Member
08-24-2004
| Tuesday, August 09, 2011 - 6:13 pm
After so many of you recommended it, I went and got the audiobook for The Hunger Games at the library. I am really enjoying it (probably 2/3 of the way through), but when I started it I thought to myself "Oh, this sounds like it is going to be sad. I don't think I want to read it." Didn't take long for me to be drawn in, though! I think I am on the library waiting list for the second book, but I need to check. I should be ready for it tomorrow or Thursday!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, August 09, 2011 - 8:09 pm
Speaking of the Hunger Games trilogy my copy of Mockingjay I had borrowed from Teach on Kindle had expired.. lol.. of course I finished it long ago, but first they emailed me to let me know I didn't have long to finish it but of course I could always buy my own copy.
Then it warned me on the Kindle and now there is a line on my menu before my Collections list saying
[Loan Expired} Mockingjay... and if I click on that it is a sweet message to me saying it has expired, or my book loan has ended and then a convenient link to explore "purchase details".
And the book is no longer in the collection where I'd stashed it while reading.
So, thank you, Teach!
And for anyone with a Kindle who hasn't read the trilogy yet, you can buy the Trilogy as a bundle for a decent price.
And I have the first two books I can lend.. once each..
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 8:02 am
Just started reading the Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. I will take a break from her after this book.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 8:16 am
Escapee, that is the one book of hers that I did not like at all.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 8:21 am
Uh oh, don't tell me that, I just started, LOL. I've read 3 of her books: Firefly Lane, Night Road, and On Mystic Lake. Thought I would try this one because it was new at the library and I was in a hurry to get ot a meeting, LOL
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 9:03 am
I got a message from Amazon saying my lent book had been returned. Thanks for the info on what happens on your end, Sea. I've not borrowed a book, so I didn't know how it worked for the other side.
I'm about 60% of the way through Lacuna. Not reading as much as I could, but enjoying the book. I'm also about 4 hours away from completing Fall of Giants (Follett). I'm hoping to finish it today, so I can download a new one before mom & I take a road trip this weekend. I'm thinking Laurie Notaro's "It looked Different on the Model" would be a fun one.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 8:33 am
Reading James Lipton's "Inside Inside." I like his interviews on Inside the Actor's Studio, and the snippets he writes about individual interviews are interesting. But he spends way too much time talking about how hot his wife is. I don't find method actors to be particularly interesting, anyway - Shelley Winters was one of the few truly funny people I know of who was also a Method actor. And I love funny people. But hey, if spending a day "being the orange" works for you, who am I to criticize?
Anyway, the book is kind of all over the place - some James Lipton autobiography, some history of method acting, some history of the genesis of the Actor's Studio and it's more recent Master's Program, and some interview highlights. It's not particularly well organized, which is surprising because Lipton is a writer and scholar first and an actor second. One interesting tidbit - his father was a hippy-dippy beat poet. Hard to relate that to Lipton's very proper, polite and mannered style.
Poor organization seems to be a common theme for me lately. Where on earth have all the good editors gone?
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 8:47 am
I'm reading The Sixes by Kate White and I hate to put it down! It's about a woman who goes back to teach at a college run by one of her friends after being disgraced in the writing circles. There is a murder and a secret society on campus called, The Sixes. It's everything I want in a mystery. I'm suspecting everyone!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 1:40 pm
Finally finished Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints by Sam Brower.
Extremely troubling stuff.. I've posted about some of it over in News & Views in the Warren Jeffs thread.
Haven't decided what is next.. finish with the last book about FLDS I have or move on for now..
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 4:18 pm
Sea, sounds like you need a refreshing blast of some lighter, more uplifting fare. Then you can always tackle the other FLDS book later. IMHO.
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 6:59 pm
A friend texted me yesterday, "damn David Foster Wallace was a great writer. Rereading Consider the Lobster." So now I've been spending all day in his beautiful, complex, daring Infinite Jest.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 7:16 pm
LOL!!
Well.. sorry but I actually find knowledge itself worth the angst.
So.. I'm now reading Lisa Pulitzer & Elissa Wall's Stolen Innocence.. she had sisters who were married to Rulon Jeffs (but they were at least 18), a father who was highly trained but forced to leave lucrative jobs at several companies, such as Morton Thiokol.. and then forced to sell his OWN company to two sons of Rulon Jeffs. She went to school where Warren Jeffs was the principal and was married to a first cousin at age 14.. and she testified in one of the first trials against Warren Jeffs.
Then I'll switch gears.. I'm looking forward to the arrival of Stephen King's forthcoming book about Nov 22 1963.. pre-ordered. And have an interesting book on Scientology and also one about a blind man his guide dog who got out of the Twin Towers on 9.11.
Tisha, if I had friends who texted like that, I might have to start texting..
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 11:10 pm
Finished the Lacuna - loved it! Now starting The Last Block in Harlem.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 11:34 pm
Lacuna was good, huh?
I enjoyed LBiH too.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, August 15, 2011 - 8:00 am
I won all the books of YA author Elizabeth Scott. After I finished The Sixes, which I loved, I picked up her book, The Living Dead Girl. I finished it last night, very short read but oh so powerful. I'm still thinking about it.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, August 15, 2011 - 3:36 pm
I received an email from Booktrib.com this morning telling me that I've been chosen to be a book reviewer for them. I am so excited! I'll have a blog and they will send me books to review before they hit the shelves. I just hope and pray that I am good at it!
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, August 15, 2011 - 8:48 pm
You just got my dream job, Mamie! Have a blast with it!
Yup, Sea - loved Lacuna. It fit especially well w/my Spanish teacher side - but then you add in the author/English teacher side, and it was like I'd died and gone to heaven!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, August 15, 2011 - 11:39 pm
That is super, Mamie!
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - 9:04 am
I am reading a book called Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan. So far it's slow.
I finished Winter Garden, and I liked it 'ok' found a lot of it unbelievable, for the most part. I also read On Distant Shores over the weekend. Boring and predictable. The last couple Kristin Hannah books have no real excitement or drama like that of Night Road or Firefly Lane.
Mamie, I think that is AMAZING and I am SO SO SO SO Jealous!
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Yesitsme
Member
08-24-2004
| Thursday, August 18, 2011 - 8:18 am
Mamie, any time you say a book is good I put it on my reading list.....you will be great at it!!!! I am so excited for you. I will have to make that site one of my favorites... though of course I expect you to continue to talk about everything you read here.
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Marysafan
Member
08-07-2000
| Thursday, August 18, 2011 - 9:00 am
Mamie!!! I am so happy for you! I also put your recommends on my must read list.
I recently read the 8th book in the Maisie Dobbs series, I believe the title was "A Lesson in Secrets" but I'm not sure. I just call them all Maisie Dobbs. I love these books and this character quite a lot. Loved this one as much as all the others.
Now reading "Rogue Warrior" by Richard Marcinko. Amazing autobiography of a unique individiual. Not someone that I would want for a husband, or the father of my children, or even my next door neighbor, but as defender of my freedoms...you would be hard pressed to find one better.
Fascinating and controversial individual who has led and amazing life to the fullest. Now reading some of his fictional tales. He's quite the story teller. Intensity laced with humor. The man's got me using phrases no self-respecting grandmother of six should ever use under any circumstances!
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